Special election will fill open St. Paul seat on Ramsey County Board

Frederick Melo, Pioneer Press
·2 min read

With Ramsey County Board Chair Trista Martinson stepping down to take on a new role, the county will hold a special election for the District 3 seat on Feb. 11.

If more than two candidates file for office, a political primary to whittle down the field will be held Nov. 5, the same day as the U.S. presidential election.

“We are following the timeline set forth in (state) election law,” said Rose Lindsay, a spokesperson for Ramsey County, on Friday. “Having the primary in November and general election in February was the soonest timeline possible to conduct this special election.”

The filing period will run from July 30 through Aug. 13.

Martinson represents Falcon Heights and the St. Paul neighborhoods of Payne-Phalen, the North End, South Como, Como Park, Frogtown, Hamline-Midway and St. Anthony Park. She announced last month that she will step down by Aug. 1 to lead Ramsey/Washington Recycling and Energy, which runs the waste-to-energy conversion center in Newport, a new food scraps recycling program and other trash diversion efforts.

The county commissioners receive salaries of $104,077, and the chair is paid $109,338. In addition, each commissioner is awarded a spending allowance of up to $7,200 to cover work-related expenses.

Martinson isn’t the only county board member leaving office. District 1 Commissioner Nicole Frethem and District 7 Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt have chosen not to run for re-election, and their seats will be on the November ballot. Commissioner Mary Jo McGuire is running unopposed for re-election on Nov. 5.

The candidate filing period for those seats closed June 4. In District 1, Tara Jebens-Singh was the sole candidate to file for office.

In District 7, four candidates are vying for the seat: Kevin “KB” Berglund, Kelly Miller, Sarah K. Yang and Michelle Yener. The political primary for that seat will be held Aug. 13.

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